Revolutionary Marxists argue that socialism is possible only if the working class leads a revolution. So why organise among students?
“A tremendous wave of strikes swept the country from end to end, convulsing the entire body of the nation ... The working-class masses were stirred to the very core of their being.”
Capitalism comes into the world “dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt”. So concludes Marx after a lengthy account of the transition from feudalism to capitalism near the end of Capital, Volume I.
In 1901, the Manchester Guardian reported on the German Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) conference: “Three women especially stand out as really remarkable speakers ... What these ladies do not know in the realm of social politics is not worth knowing. And they support their views not only with cogency and logic, but, when necessary, with a very Niagara of shrill invective.” In spite of the “shrill invective”, the writer admitted: “Whenever one of these female ‘comrades’ occupies the tribune the whole congress pulses with animation”. Clara Zetkin was one of those comrades.
Scott Morrison smirked as he announced that he was removing the “heavy hand of government” while COVID cases soared in late December. Government would no longer be “shutting down people’s lives”. The repellent image was a metaphor for this inhuman society.
“The workers of Paris, amidst the failures and treasons of the ruling classes, have understood that the hour has struck for them to save the situation by taking into their own hands the direction of public affairs ... They have understood that it is their imperious duty, and their absolute right, to render themselves masters of their own destinies, by seizing upon the governmental power.”